Saturday, January 24, 2015

COMET 67P/C-P

Picture taken from Science

COMET TRANSFORMER

I) Perhaps understanding the current needs of scientific
community (speed of information delivery, presentation of facts as they
occurred),Science has published a
series of articles, realizing early findings and studies 10 km away of a space mobile
object : the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/CG), photographed and studied
physically and chemically, with sensors attached to the robotic spacecraft : Rosetta. II) With this achievement, the ESA
(European Spatial Agency), not only demonstrates its high scientific level, but
also multiplied it by 100, inaugurating an expanded way of doing things:
participation of dozens of scientists from Europe and the rest of the world in
a research that concern all humans. The
sum of those scientific talents and why not -in a near future- the sum of all
those who know something about the subject according to their abilities, providing
an expanded level of observations and relevant suggestions. Regarding the
articles, commented globally by Eric Hand and MGGT Taylor, we add abstractions
related to the nucleus, dust and tail of
the comet and further physicochemical information:
III) The in crescendo interaction of the solar wind with the tail and nucleus of the comet 67P/CG, as
it approaches the sun (> 3 AU :Astronomical Units) is shown. The OSIRIS
(Optical, Spectroscopic and Infrared Remote Imaging System), showed the comet's
nucleus and its two lobes connected by a short neck (H Sierks et al). Interestingly, the core density
is lower than water and similar to cork,
showing activity in the neck from (> 3 AU), with jets consistent with surface mass loss, although
these mass could also be lost by
sublimation or release pressure from subsurface.
The internal structure of the core is porous: 70-80% (Sierks et al). The comet's coma is generated by
nuclear ice sublimation. It is not known if the 2 lobes were united 4.5 billion
years ago or if this union was acquired. OSIRIS, identified in the comet: cracks,
surface transport of dust, mass loss and others, promoted by fluidification of surface and mass loss (N. Thomas). On the
walls of numerous pits were observed nodular consolidations (goosebumps) of 3 m, believed to
represent the fundamental building blocks of the comet, before the earth was
formed.

IV) It was observed that the comet was re-sculpted as
it approaches the sun. The solar wind does not destroy the comet perhaps by the
magnetosphere created by this. Perhaps the Rosetta probe lacking this
protection will suffer the effects of the solar wind. To get an idea of
accretion and dust/gas ratio of the nebula from which emerged the 67P/CG comet,
was observed that at distances of 3.6 AU, the comet had clouds of 105
grains (> 5 cm), surrounding the core, which usually emits dust grains up to
2 cm, with a ratio of dust/gas: 4 ± 2 (Rotundi et al.), higher than that observed in other comets. Maps of the
sub-surface temperature of the comet were varied depending on the season,
rotation and shape of the nucleus (Samuel Gulkis). Initially the solar wind
permeated the thin atmosphere of the comet (formed by sublimation), until the
size and pressure of the ionized atmosphere of the comet formed a magnetosphere
that repelled the solar wind from 3 UA (Hans Nilsson). The ROSINA (Rosetta
Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis), measured the composition of
coma, finding high fluctuations, with diurnal and seasonal variation of CO, CO2
and others, derived from temperature
differences below the surface of the comet (Hassig). According to Capaccioni F.
et al, the VIRTIS (Visible, and
Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer), detected organic compounds in the core
surface (very low reflectance, spectral slopes of lines and ranges of visible
light and infrared absorption wide ranges: 2.9 to 3.6-mm) in the whole of the
illuminated surface, compatible with opaque minerals: CC, CH, OH, NH and little
ice water. In the active areas of the
core, amino acid precursors, were formed by the action of UV light and cosmic
rays. A formed compound: dicarboxylic acid may be a precursor of life, as
theorize Oparin and Haldane.

Although spectral studies of the coma of the comet
(K.Altwegg et al), revealing high
ratios of D/H, remove the possibility that water that populated our oceans came from
comets, asteroids driven arrival is not discarded, thereby panspermia
hypothesis, continue.